Byron Dobson: Helping women thrive

At the end of this month, Jessica Lowe-Minor, incoming chair of the Tallahassee/Leon County Commission on the Status of Women and Girls, will sit down with board members and chart the agency’s next steps.

It’s likely to be an ambitious task, but they will have an advantage: Recently the commission compiled a robust report filled with 100 recommendations to improve the outcomes of women and girls in Tallahassee.

In a city where women are leaders in every aspect of this community’s fabric, from local government to law to business ownership, one might question the need for such a report. But a review of it makes clear that much more progress needs to be made with equality in the workplace and the quality of life for women, as well offering a reminder that young girls also have issues that need to be addressed.

Certainly, as with most studies, you can find several issues that may not on your radar.

According to former chair Robin Hassler Thompson, raising awareness is one of the key missions of the commission — along with offering action plans based on endless hours of research, community forums and personal discussions.

“It is a way for us all to work together to build a stronger and more vibrant community,” Hassler Thompson said. “Helping women and girls to thrive helps everybody. It is that simple.”

The commission’s report covers a wide landscape of quality-of-life issues, from pay equity to access to health insurance to crime and bullying. It would take a considerable amount of time on the part of local government and even the volunteer board to address each issue in the depth that it needs. But different sectors such as higher education or law enforcement can immediately act on the recommendations without further direction from the commission.

The commission’s work already has led to significant forward steps, including:

• Creating the Leon County Alliance for Girls, an umbrella heading for the many organizations that work on similar issues. As stated in the report, this allows those entities to network, share resources and coordinate approaches to improving the life of girls in our community.

• Hosting a summit on Women and the Workplace last fall that brought together more than 200 participants to address issues, particularly highlighting economic security for women.

• Applauding city and county government efforts to revisit policies on domestic and sexual violence in the workplace and increased training for employees, leading to greater awareness of these concerns.

• Hosting public hearings to better understand a cross-section of issues affecting women and girls in the community.

While naysayers may dismiss this work as another study that satisfies the interests of one group, it is important to look at this as an example of an engaged community.

It reflects the expertise in this community and the ability to tap into resources addressing economics and workplace issues, health concerns, criminal justice, education and more. If we believe in the approach of first acknowledging issues that can affect the quality of life for some, and then take action on addressing those issues, some good will prevail. For instance, look at local efforts to address homelessness in Leon County.

“The key areas and issues for me are around economic security issues,” Hassler Thompson said. “If you don’t have economic security, you are most likely trapped in a violent relationship, lack access to health care and, as girl, lack access to mentors and programs that help you to thrive.”

Other recommendations include:

• Partnering with Florida State and Florida A&M universities, along with Tallahassee Community College, to study the high costs of child care and the lack of available transportation for women in the workplace.

• Encouraging the city of Tallahassee, Leon County and the Chamber of Commerce to jointly examine information about the challenges faced by working women, while encouraging the chamber to recognize companies that follow best practices for working women.

• Compiling local statistics on pay equity.

• Addressing bullying by having the commission work with the Big Bend Anti-Bullying Task Force “to identify gender-specific data” and to have the School Board more aware of those findings.

It’s interesting to note that much of the information in the report is pulled from national, state and local studies. This is an example of the depth of research taken on by commission members and the staff at the Oasis Center for Women & Girls, which provided staff assistance to the project.

Now that so much has been compiled and suggested, what tangible results we see in the next year or in the next five years will be a measure of its value.

Visit associate editor Byron Dobson’s column online at Tallahassee.com. You also can contact him at bdobson@tallahassee.com or 599-2258, follow him on Twitter at @byrondobson and send a friend request on Facebook.

FIND OUT MORE

For more information on the Tallahassee/Leon County Commission on the Status of Women and Girls visit http://leoncountyfl.gov/committees/detail.asp?id=123 or http://www.talgov.com/treasurer/tlccswg.aspx or www.theoasiscenter.net.